My husband has no desire to be my personal photographer, so here is an example of what I'm working with. I keep telling him I have a blog to uphold. I'm lucky if I get one good pic.

^^^ 28 weeks ^^^

^^^ 30 Weeks ^^^ (These were just for the sake of documentation at 30 weeks, and I gave up on him since I was in my robe anyway!)

10 weeks to go!!! EEEeeee!!

Size: According to my pregnancy app, about 3+ lbs and 18 inches. Head of lettuce??

Symptoms: I am so lucky to have such easy pregnancies. I really have nothing to complain about. Moving around is getting harder, but that just comes with having a huge belly sticking out in front of you. I still have acid reflux, just randomly throughout the day. I say my anxiety has been a little higher than normal...right now I'm trying to wrap my head around keeping up with TWO. I'm a little nervous about my mental state going downhill when I'm sleep deprived and can't sleep when the baby sleeps because I have a toddler who never stops moving.

Sleep: Sleep is going just fine. Not even using extra pillows. However I wait until Joey is asleep every single night and have to go turn his fan away from me. Grrrrrrr I hate fans.

Happy I'm still not experiencing swelling like I did with Shepherd. Although its still early, I can't remember when it got bad with him. I have bought two new pairs of shoes a 1/2 size up anticipating my feet swelling, and instead I'm just walking around with shoes that are too big.

I'm feeling Major move a lot when I am trying to fall asleep, probably because thats the only time I'm still all day. He moves a lot! Although its still hard to feel from the outside.

I had this fear that I pretty much made up in my head that he was breech, but at my 30 week doctor appointment she felt and said he seemed to be head down. I know they can still flip a million times at this point, but that made me feel better.

Going for a VBAC, I want to do everything I can to increase my chances of success. I don't want to end up with a C-section and have any reason to say, "what if I'd done that?" I know some people really do need a C-section. If something happens and thats me, ok. But I want to do everything I can to prepare my body for a vaginal birth. Notice I did not say "natural" birth. I will still be getting an epidural. I wish I was someone who could go completely free, but I do have my limits.

So...I've started going to the chiropractor twice/week. Chiropractic care during pregnancy can help baby get into the best position for birth, and can help me have an easier and shorter and safer delivery.

I've also decided to hire a doula to be with me during labor and delivery. Having a doula present has statistically proven to lower the C-section rate. Women who have a doula present also report a more positive birth experience, which is really all I want. With Shepherd I felt out of control, and I want more presence with Major.

Nursery update:

Joey and two of our friends, Whisman and Mike, are painting as I type this. White on white on white.

I wanted to paint all of the trim work black but we don't have any black paint and I just want it done tonight.
Our house is a wreck moving everything out of my "dressing room" and finding places for everything. This is the current state of our bedroom and Major's nursery:

We will spend probably all day tomorrow getting ourselves put back together, because neither Joey or I can relax with a mess like that. I have this desire to just throw everything away and start over...

The crib arrived this week, so hopefully it will be put together before the weekend is over. I shared which crib we chose here.

We have something that would work for the changing table, but we are on the lookout for a French Provincial dresser, just like Shepherd's. We lucked out with his and randomly found it at the Salvation Army. I've been looking on craigslist and I hope we can find one, because I love it! If anyone knows of one, let me know!

(Shepherd's dresser, Before and After)

We ordered wallpaper for the nursery, and ended up returning it. I got a little ahead of myself and was excited about the chartreuse colored elephants in the wallpaper, ignoring the pink elephants. Then when the wallpaper got here I started having second thoughts about putting pink in my son's room. Doubt means don't so I sent it back.

We've got a few more things for the nursery, but I'll just wait and share pictures when we're all finished.

I'm just so happy to, as far as we can tell, have a healthy baby boy. I love him so much already and I know once he gets here its just going to grow more and more each day.

I wrote this post forever ago, sharing marriage advice I've heard, and it has been one of my most popular posts.

Today I thought I'd share some of my own thoughts on marriage, and more little bits of advice I've picked up.

Disclaimer: Four years is not that long to be married, so I'm well aware that I could look back on this and think ohmygoshyoubigidiotstoptalkingyoudon'tknowanything.
But anyway...some thoughts.

Our marriage does not work because Joey is my soulmate. My verdict is still out on what I believe about soulmates, but thats not my point. I think where people get into trouble is thinking, this marriage is going to work because I'm marrying my soulmate/perfect person/insert whatever other word you want. You think of soulmate, and you think of someone perfect for you. Neither of us are perfect and we are going to fail time and time again. There are plenty of things about Joey that if I could change them, would make it a lot easier on me. And vice versa a million times over ;) This marriage is going to work because we are both equally committed to making it work. I realize thats not "romantic." But what I believe is romantic is being married forever, and that takes HARD work.

One of the best things you can do, for any relationship you care about, not just marriage, is knowing someone's love language. There are 5 love languages: Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gift Giving, Words of Affirmation and Touch. Mine is quality time and Joey's is words of affirmation. Quality time is the way I give and receive love. Pretty much if I've ever spent time with you, I love you, because I'm picky about it. If I don't have quality and quantity time with Joey I would not feel loved by him. And he knows that and acts accordingly :) And I'm happy to do the same for him. Joey thrives on words. If I didn't know that, I would probably think he could tell I loved him because I spent all my time with him. But thats not the case. To him, he has to hear it. So I make sure to tell him why I love him, what I think is great about him, what he does that I appreciate. It comes easily, but it is still a conscious effort on my part to use my words with him, because thats not something I care about as much.

Something I learned in college, and have always been aware of, are the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse in marriage. John Gottman is a researcher who spent years studying marriages, and came up with 4 things that are very predicting of divorce in a marriage. I am a researcher, and I am by the book, and if there is something with evidence behind it, I believe it. So I always remembered these 4 things and try to be aware of NOT letting myself ever act this way. I think awareness is always the first step. The four "horsemen" you want to avoid are: Being critical, Having contempt, Being defensive, and Stonewalling. They usually fall in that order. You can read more about it here.

Pray together and read the Bible together. Duh, that would make sense. But easier said than done, we honestly go through spurts where we are really diligent, then we slack off. But like I said, I like facts and evidence. So awhile ago our pastor was doing a series on marriage and gave us this to think about. Harvard did a study on marriage, and found that the most beneficial thing to prevent divorce was prayer. 6 in 10 marriages end in divorce, but add prayer to the marriage and that statistic drops to 1 in 1100. Thats insane! Not surprising, but crazy to think about. After that, we got serious about praying together. If you would like to watch the sermon series I mentioned, its available online here. I recommend it.

I've talked about this before, but to go along with the last paragraph, pray for each other. I've been praying for Joey since I knew how to pray. I didn't know who he was, but I prayed for my future husband. I still pray for him all the time and I'll never stop. I see the effects of those early prayers even now. I see them in his character, in our relationship, in our family, in our life, in our blessings. If you are praying, something is happening, whether you can see it or not. One of my favorite quotes.

We wrote our own marriage vows. We have them framed and hanging in our living room. I really think that was one of the best things we did for the foundation of our marriage. I took so much time and thought and prayer into what I wanted to say. Because to me it meant something bigger than just part of a ceremony. I go back to the promises I made to Joey in those vows, that I said in front of God and everyone we love, in a church. One of the main things I said that I keep going back to is, "I promise to put the good of us above the good of myself." That makes it black and white for me. Is this going to benefit just me, or is there another way to do it that would benefit both of us?

So there you have it, just a few things I've come up with over the past few years of marriage!

Shepherd Nash, we are obsessed with you! You bring us so much pure complete JOY. You love to laugh and play. You are so smart and funny. We are complete obnoxious parents who think you are wonderful and perfect, above and beyond, in every way. I am so so so happy that I get to be YOUR mommy. I wouldn't want it any other way. 18 months have gone by so quickly, and I know its going to keep flying by. I love remembering and keeping a record of special things about you at different moments in time. You are so unique and special and we love you!

Weight: 20 lbs 12 oz
Height: 29.5 inches
Head Circumference: 45.5 cm

Wearing 12-18 month clothing
Size 3 diapers

Has his Daddy's personality. He loves having lots of people around and lights up with a crowd.

LOVES "kitty cats." I have no idea where this obsession came from, but it doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon. We talk about kitty cats all day long.

Naps at 10:30 every morning, occasionally will have a late afternoon nap if he is extra tired.

Lets Daddy put him to bed and goes right to sleep.

Sleeping through the night, usually 8:30-7:30.

Still nursing. On average, twice/day. When he wakes up and before his first nap.

Is not attached to anything, no blankie or stuffed animal. He actually made me take his elephant stuffed animal out of his crib.

Uses a paci at bed and naptime, and in the car. Although he has to be really sleepy, or else he takes it and throws it.

Likes being given little tasks to do, like "go find me your basketball" or "pick out a Llama Llama book."

Loves to look at pictures and videos of himself on the phone.

Loves looking at pictures of his family. I have an album on my phone called Shepherd's Family and he knows how to find it. We included Aunt Caity's kitten and his best friend, Grayson, in the album!

Hates being confined. Climbs out of the grocery cart, high chairs, etc. Has to be distracted to be put in the car seat. Will only tolerate the stroller if he's in the right mood.

Way too often I let him make gigantic messes, just because he's having so much fun doing it I hate to make him quit. The only problem with that, is that he continues to think its the most fun he's ever had and wants to make the same mess over and over again. Which is why I should have never let him play with the cereal boxes. Cheerios. Everywhere. Or "unpack" the fridge. See that Pampers box? It was nicely packed tight with clothes that no longer fit, ready to be moved to the attic. Now they are all in a messy pile in that laundry basket. Have I mentioned how much I hate anything having to do with laundry? Folding, ugh.

Anyway, I say this room is how I feel some days. Just a huge mess. Part of it I'll blame on pregnancy hormones, most of it is probably just me. I go and go and then one day I hit my breaking point and have a nervous breakdown over stupid little things. That happened a few days ago.

What spurred my latest mental breakdown was a stupid pumpkin. I was on my way out the front door, planning on running a quick errand (to the library so I could stop receiving notices that my book was overdue). I'm carrying Shepherd and WALK into a pumpkin, stubbing my toe. It was so painful, I thought I was going to pass out. I go back in the house with my foot dripping blood and put Shep in his crib so I can survey the damage. I'm too big to really bend over, but can tell there is all this pumpkin wedged underneath my toenail. I'll spare you more details.

That night Joey had to "perform surgery" on my toe, and it was quite dramatic and I made him stop halfway through because it hurt too bad. Then I had my mental breakdown, crying about my toe and everything else. Mainly I was just freaking out thinking I was going to have to have my toe amputated, and I didn't know how I was going to get to the doctor, then I moved on to stressing that the nursery isn't even close to being finished, we haven't bought anything, and I want a doula and haven't even looked into it and then I was upset that I cried so much and now my head hurts, and why can't I ever find tylenol when I need it, and tylenol is the only thing you can take when pregnant...wah wah wah.

The next morning I cried some more when I couldn't find a podiatrist to get me in, and the urgent treatment clinic told me if I came to them they would have to remove my whole toenail.

But it all worked out, I finally found a podiatrist, I made my sister in law come with me in case I needed amputation ;) , which I didn't, it was thankfully an easy fix and I just have a bruised toe now. I ordered the crib, emailed a doula, and feel much better now that its FRIDAY!

P.S. It was really embarrassing that I'm pretty sure no one at the podiatrist office believed I just walked into a pumpkin. They all assumed I kicked it and have rage issues :(

First up, Joey's work party. Shepherd dressed up as a "scary dragon." Even though it was technically a dinosaur costumer. Oh well.

He had the best time, taking one piece of candy at a time and placing it in his pumpkin. They also had big blow up pools filled with candy and at one point he just climbed right on in one.

He also liked seeing all of the pictures of himself in Daddy's office!

On actual Halloween night, we had Joey's family up to celebrate. The weather was bad, so trick or treating was postponed until Friday, but Shepherd and his cousin, Matthew, still dressed up and got some candy. I made my annual Halloween dinner for everyone, but forgot to take a picture, boo :(